So Long, Bill & Ted!

The Universal Orlando Resort has announced that 2017 will mark the final year for Bill & Ted’s Excellent Halloween Adventure, an annual show that combines the famous 80’s duo with current pop-culture gags. Twitter is already exploding with disgruntled and heartbroken HHN fans, so I thought I would write out a few of my thoughts on the closing of a legendary show.

Here we go, excellent dudes!

The Show Has Lost Steam
This might not put me in the popularity boat, but frankly, Rex and I were sort of fed up with Bill & Ted. As a matter of fact, we decided last year that we would not carve out time for the show this year (2017) unless we had plenty of time to kill. Obviously, with this now being the last year, that sentiment will change and we will make certain to see its final run.

But things had gotten bland and simply unfunny. The writing has consistently deteriorated over the last few years so that the legacy of the show has been driving its popularity more than the actual content. There will be plenty of speculation as to why this is the final year (see below), but I have to wonder if the Universal creative team realizes that the air has gone out of the tires and it is time for something new.

The Show Was Comforting
Despite our concerns about the quality of the content, there remains something comforting about knowing the Bill and Ted show is doing their thing every night over at the Fear Factor stage. For 26 years, guests have been able to rely on that one piece of consistency from Halloween Horror Nights, and for Rex and the Beast, its been 15 straight years of Bill & Ted fun. I will miss just the presence of the show at the event.

Die Hard Universal Fans Will Start Condemning Harry
Here’s the deal – there is a rumor that the Fear Factor stage is being torn down in order to make room for yet another Harry Potter expansion, specifically, the Ministry of Magic. Whether or not that is the reason Bill and Ted is closing (I tend to think it isn’t), the fact remains that a correlation will exist between the two if Potter expands.

Now, no one will doubt the excellence of Harry Potter and its positive impact on the Universal Orlando Resort, and most fans love the experience. But as is always the case, too much of a good thing becomes a hated thing. Fans, and especially HHN fans, will start viewing Harry as a plague that continues to creep along and devour favorite attractions, and one that must be stopped before too much destruction is unleashed. Disney is revealing all kinds of new things, but it is varied (Pandora, Star Wars, Toy Story, etc). At the two main gates, Universal has been primarily a Harry Potter experience the last several years. The rumored Nintendo Land will help this, but fans will soon be expressing their distaste for the ever growing Wizarding World.

Change=Loss
Every kind of change brings some kind of loss, even good change. That means there will be adjustments and the HHN community will feel the absence of Bill & Ted, especially in 2018. So, it’s ok to be bummed about the change, even if we all aren’t huge Bill & Ted fans, because it is undoubtedly a loss to the event as a whole. Nevertheless, we should be optimistic about what is to come.

So, let’s enjoy Bill S. Preston, Esquire and Ted “Theodore” Logan one more time and see how they can encourage us to “be excellent to one another” once again!